Not Me
by Random Dice
Summary: Emma saw her eyes clear for a moment as she only just saw what she and Cora were doing, but the wall, as damaged as it was, shielded her once more. "I'm sorry for taking Henry. I'm sorry that my Mother told your secret. I'm sorry no one ever fought for you. I'm sorry that…that I didn't try to love you, like you tired to love me." But you're true love was Daniel.


**Title:**Not Me**  
Fandom:**Once Upon a Time**  
Pairings:**Swan Queen (sorta)**  
Rating:**T**  
Spoilers:**Just Cora coming to town.**  
Summary:**Emma saw her eyes clear for a moment as she only just saw what she and Cora were doing, but the wall, as damaged as it was, shielded her once more. "I'm sorry for taking Henry. I'm sorry that my Mother told your secret. I'm sorry no one ever fought for you. I'm sorry that…that I didn't try to love you, like you tired to love me." But you're true love was Daniel.  
**Author's Note:**My birthday is on Tuesday so I figured I'd surprise you all by finishing all my prompts. Prompt from Tumblr: _Swan Queen; Emma is not Regina's true love and she knows it. How does she deal with it? Angsty please?_**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing.

/

"How could you do this? To Henry? To me?" Emma asked her, heartbroken. Tears gathered in her eyes as she stared at the woman who stood across from her whose shield was slowly cracking further than it had ever shattered before. "Regina, how could-"

"Because she loves me."

Emma scoffed in disbelief. Even standing in the middle of the chaos that Regina and Cora created, Emma didn't for one minute think that love was motivating the two women. "Cora loves you? Regina, what she gives you isn't love."

"It's more love than I've gotten from-" Regina shook her head, stopping the word _you_ before it escaped and her brows furrowed. "And she does. Love me." Regina half smiled at a spot beyond Emma. "She's like me. She doesn't know how to show her love."

"Regina, you don't know how to show love because of her."

Regina snapped her eyes to Emma's. "I did, before everything happened. I knew love and I knew how to give it back." Regina's face transformed into the most damaged smile. "Now she's back and she loves me. And I love her. She just wants to help me."

"Everything that happened was Cora killing Daniel." Emma inched forward. "Do you remember that much, Regina? Your 'loving' Mother killed Daniel, the boy you were going to marry." The blonde held up her dirty hands as a sign of surrender. "He's dead. He's gone because she ripped his heart out of his chest."

"I know. I remember. She said she was sorry."

"And you believed her?"

"No one's ever apologized before." Regina murmured, almost trying to convince herself. Emma watched as she closed her eyes and her lip trembled as memories floated into her mind. Regina blinked her eyes open and looked straight into Emma's green eyes, so different then her own dark ones. The broken brunette opened her mouth, trying to find words, but only a loud breath of air left her, the beginnings of a sob. "No one has ever…"

Emma gave her a small smile and stepped forward again. With her body less than a foot from her occasional lover, the blonde lifted a hand to rest on Regina's surprisingly bloody cheek. "I know, and I'm sorry for," Emma let out a chuckle, "never saying sorry." The smile dropped as a scream shattered the air around them. Regina jumped. Emma saw her eyes clear for a moment as she only just saw what she and Cora were doing, but the wall, as damaged as it was, shielded her once more. "I'm sorry for taking Henry. I'm sorry that my Mother told your secret. I'm sorry no one ever fought for you. I'm sorry that…that I didn't try to love you, like you tired to love me."

_But you're true love was Daniel and I was never going to get out of his shadow._

"I'm sorry." Emma touched her body to Regina's and rested her forehead on the brunette's. She could hear the shaky breathing, though she was unsure if it was hers or Regina's. "I'm sorry," she whispered, "but people are dying."

"You want me to stop my Mother." Regina asked her quietly, sounding more like the Regina Emma knew than the one that had taken her place for the past couple weeks.

"Not alone." Emma assured her. "Never alone, I'll be there. I'll stop her with you."

"No." She said abruptly.

Emma recoiled. "Regina-"

"You can't help." The former Mayor shook her head and stepped back. "No one can. This is me…and her. It always has been." Regina frowned and a shiver ran through her body. "This is my battle."

Emma reached out to grab her hand. "Alone? You want to face her by yourself? Are you crazy?"

"No, I'm terrified." She answered, squeezing her hand back. "Cora, my _Mother_, won't take kindly to spectators. I have to do this alone if she's to be gone like you all want her to be… There's a spell."

"That'll take her out?" Emma asked.

"Yes." Regina yanked her hand from Emma before roughly grabbing Emma and smashing their lips together in a bruising kiss that had Emma instantly hot and forgetting that she was covered in dirt, sweat, and blood and that this woman was going to take on one of her greatest fears by herself.

All too soon, Regina was gone in a puff of dark purple.

It wasn't hard to find Cora. The Queen of Hearts had taken her ruling position from Regina's office, her very own desk across from her daughter's grand one. Cora smiled when she noticed Regina's presence. The smile fell as she took in her daughter's features. A deep sigh escaped her. "It's time isn't it?" She asked softly of her one and only child.

"Yes," Regina nodded and swallowed, sending her a sadly genuine smile, "but I'm going with you."

Cora's eyes widened comically. "Regina, no…"

Regina stepped up to where her Mother was sitting and knelt down as she would with Henry. "Yes. You don't have to be alone, Mother. I won't let you be alone any longer." In the distance she could hear Emma yelling her name, Snow screaming for Emma, James shouting for Henry, and a wide variety of noises that meant what was left of the town was coming for them. Regina stood and offered her Mother her hand.

With watery eyes, Cora took her daughter's hand. The two disappeared in purple and black clouds respectively and took shape surrounded by the crowd. "So they'll see it's true." Regina whispered when her Mother's face shaped into confusion.

"Regina!"

"Mom!"

Without turning to the two yelling for her, Regina took Cora's other hand and held it tightly. She ignored all that was going on around them, Henry's desperate cries, Emma's angry shouts, the look of horror on Red's and Granny's faces. All she saw was her Mother gripping her hand as hard was Regina was. "It's time and that's okay." She pulled Cora to her, giving her one last hug and a kiss to her temple. "I'll see you there, Mama."

"Don't keep me waiting, my dear."

Regina shook her head. She wouldn't, not now, not ever again. Together, they chanted the same words of a spell neither thought they would use. A golden glow surrounded their bodies, starting at their toes and traveling further up their beings as more words were spilt from their lips.

The glow filled Cora first and left her instantly. Her lips stopped moving, leaving Regina with a pained smile before the Queen of Hearts slumped forward into her daughter's awaiting arms. Tears slipped down Regina's cheeks as she lowered herself to the ground with her Mother. Cheers were heard around her as she finished her own side of the spell.

The glow covered most of her body when Emma dropped down beside her, removing her Mother's corpse from her grasp. "What did you do?" Emma sounded frantic in Regina's ears. "You idiot, what did you _do_?"

"You wanted her gone." The brunette fell to the side as weakness took hold of her. Emma easily caught her and rested her on her dirty jeans.

"Not at the price of you."

Henry stood frozen, watching Emma cradle his Mom's hand close to her chest.

"Too bad." Regina murmured as the glow completed her and left as instantly as Cora's did. Regina's head rolled as her heart stopped beating, her blood stopped flowing, and her mind eased itself of the worries that plagued the damaged woman.

Emma ducked her head. "Goodbye Regina."

"Kiss her." Henry told her.

"What?" The blonde snapped her head up to look at her son. The townspeople around them fell silent as they took in the scene before them, their Savior, their Evil Queen, their Prince Henry.

"Kiss her. I know you love each other. Kiss her and bring Mom back!" The boy yelled, shrugging off Snow's soft _Henry_. "Please, please, I need my Mom, please bring her back!"

"Henry, I'm not her true love." Emma told him, hoping that she wouldn't have to explain that it had to be true love to wake her and while Emma's love was true, Regina's love to her would always be split with her love for Daniel. "It wouldn't do anything."

"Please," Henry dropped to his knees and pressed his lips to Regina's cheek, her forehead, her chin, her eyelid. "Please wake up, Mom. Mom, I love you, please wake up."


End file.
